In the maelstrom of Cuban politics,Memories of Underdevelopment is one film made in the island after the revolution that generations will be revisiting for years to come. A film very much of its time, Memories is redolent of the jaunty, black & white sensibility of the French Nouvelle Vague that was common currency among European filmmakers in the sixties. It chronicles the seriocomic misadventures of Sergio Carmona Mendoyo (Sergio Corrieri), an intellectual who is having issues reconciling himself to the social upheaval around him. Like his protagonist, the film's director, Tomas Gutierrez Alea, experienced serious problems for making a film that deals realistically with the difficulty of embracing the new status quo. The film's director of photography (Ramon Suarez) and production designer (Julio Matilla) went into exile but Gutierrez Alea stayed behind, resurfacing significantly in 1993 with Strawberries and Chocolate. The rest, as they say, is history.